1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera control system which is suitably used in, e.g., a monitor camera or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
A large number of cameras and computers for controlling these cameras may be arranged in a building or the like to form a network, thereby making it possible to transmit a video image between arbitrary points in the network. For example, the present applicant has proposed such a network or system including a camera control system to be used in a television conference system, a remote monitor system, or the like.
In such a camera control system, a photographing direction and zoom magnification of a camera at an arbitrary remote location may be remote-operated from a control location or another arbitrary location in the network, and a video signal from the camera may be received through the network, so that a pick-up image of the camera can be displayed at various locations in the network.
In the camera control system described above, as the number of cameras to be operated increases, the positions where the cameras are installed must be easily identifiable.
Therefore, the present applicant has proposed a network or scheme that displays camera icons serving as indexes indicating the positions of the cameras superposed on a plurality of maps.
However, in the above camera control system, since the camera icons superposed on the maps always are displayed to indicate the positions where the cameras are set, all users who access the system can see the arrangement of the cameras.
More specifically, in a conventional camera control system, since all the users can see the locations of all of the camera icons superposed on the maps, even those icons that are not relevant to all users, they can see the positions of all the installed cameras and remote-operate these cameras.
In the future, as these systems are designed with a larger number of cameras installed at various positions, and these cameras variously are used by more people, security aspects become important considerations.